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Copyright by 
FREDERICK STARR and F. STURGES AI.I.EN. 




A ROMAN SOLDIKK. 




J U D E A. 

Frank, Pinkie, Jakie, Sammie, and Abraham, — mj' five little Jews 
from Russia! If we had time to talk with them, and hear their story, 
they could tell us many strange things that they have seen in Europe, in 
this country, and on the great ocean. They were born in Russia, but they 
left their native land because their fathers and mothers, being Jews, had 
no chance to do well there. In Russia Jews are treated so cruelly and 
hated so greatly that they are willing to leave their homes and friends, 
and to come to a country where they know no one, cannot understand 
the language, and have to work very hard in order to make money 
enough to keep themselves and their children alive. So to America they 
came and here they are — my five little Jew boys — doing the best they 
can. Every day they go to school and learn English and study hard 



at their other lessons and are far ahead of many AmericaH boys of 
their age. When school is out they sel! papers on the street, and so 
help the family at home. Ours is the only land, the whole world 
over, where Jews can do well. 

It is a sad thing that the Jews have always had a hard time. They 
have always, as a race, been troubled and oppressed by other nations. 
Once they had a beautiful and great city and a loved land, but their 
beautiful city has been more than once destroyed and their land is 
to-day owned by a different race, while the Jews themselves are scattered 
ov er th e whole world. ^ . 




^^ ^^ ^ ^ 



^^ ^fe-TI ^ ^\^r^ ^ 



IKHl'. IHK I'RlSONliK KINi;. 

The Jews are one of the oldest races. Their books which tell of 
their past history are many hundreds of years old. They have had 
very many enemies. One nation after another has risen up against 
them. Yet though they have been many times beaten, and though 
always so cruelly treated, they have never been destroyed completel) . 
Though now scattered in all parts of the earth they are very many in 
number. The four greatest nations with whom, long ago, the Jews 
had most to do, have lost their power,— the Egyptian, the A.ssyrian, the 
Greek, and the Roman. But though for hundreds of years they have 
been weak and poor, they have left behind them many pictures, which 
show us how rich and great they once were. .Strange old pictures these 
are too and we shall look at some of them. Sometimes they were 
painted on the inside of tombs, sometimes cut with chisels on solid 
rock in the desert, sometimes carved on the walls of grand palaces, 
sometiriies painted on vases of beautiful forms. Some of these pictures 
are thousands of years old, but they show us to-day just how those 

6 




THE JEWISH HIOH PRIEST. 



old-time folk lived and acted. The Jews themselves did not make 
pictures. It was against their laws, but Jews were sometimes put into 
the pictures of these other peoples. 

I wish we might have known a little Jew boy of the old, old, time. 
He could tell us more interesting tales than Pinkie or Frank. He 
could take us up to their beautiful city of Jerusalem at the time of their 
great feast. There at the Temple we might see the High Priest. He 
was beautifully dressed. His clothing was mostly of fine linen woven 




into beautiful patterns and 
designs. It consisted of a pair 
of linen breeches, a long undercoat 
that came nearly to his ankles, a shorter 
overcoat of linen of most brilliant colors, 
of purple and scarlet, which was tied at the 
waist by a girdle of gold, blue, purple and scarlet. 
Between these two coats, the upper of which was 
called the Ephod, there was a robe of plain blue 
woolen cloth, which was bordered and fringed 
with blue and red and crimson, and hung with 
little bells of gold that tinkled as the priest 
walked. Hanging over the breast of the Ephod 
was a breastplate of gold and precious stones, the 
stones, twelve in number, each symbolizing one 
of the twelve tril)es into which the Jews were 
divided. This beautiful breastplate was looped 
at the corners by golden chains attachetl to onyx stones upon the priest's 
shoulders. Upon his head the priest wore a bonnet and a mitre of linen, 
bound around the bottom vvith a blue ribbon bearing a golden band on 
which were the words meaning" Holiness to the Lord," in Hebrew letters. 
At evening our little Jew boy would sit by his father's side, while he 
would tell him the story of the many wars his people had carried on 
in years gone by. He would tell him of the time when Joseph, sold by 
his brethren into bondage, went down into Egypt, of the famine, and 
how the brothers were sent down to the land of Pharaoh to gret corn. 



A HKANCH 
iVf BEARING OLIVER 



He would tell of the terrible suffering of the Jews in Egypt at the 
time of Moses and how by God's help they were led out from the land 
of bondage, — up into the Promised Land. He would tell of the time 
when the Jews were led away captive into Babylon ; of Daniel and his 




JEWISH CAP'llVKS BUlLl.llNti M<_)UNDS. 

bravery, and of the three faithful Jews who were cast into the fiery 
furnace. Our little few would hear all the dear old Bible stories and 
in addition he would hear fuller stories of some things than we read 
in the Bible. His father would tell him of the great cities of Assyria. 
He would describe the war that the Jewish king Jehu waged against the 

9 



f 



Assyrian king Shalmaneser. At the close of this war the poor Jewish 
king was totally beaten and was made to pay a great sum of money as 
tribute and was led in a long procession to Shalmaneser's honor. In an 
old Assyrian city, carved on a black stone obelisk, there is a picture, now 
more than twenty-seven hundred years old, in which we see this pro- 
cession. It shows us King Shalmaneser dressed in his royal robes. 
Behind him are two servants. On the wall in front of him is a picture 
of a circle with a pair of bird's wings. This is meant to represent the 




SPARROW UF IHE BIBLE. 



chief god of Assyria. In front of the king there are three persons. 
Two of them are servants of the king, but the third one, who is just 
in front of Shalmaneser, is the poor Jewish king, Jehu. He is bowing 
down and kissing the ground to show that he is conquered and is now 
ready to serve the Assyrians. Notice the strange characters above 
and below the picture. It is Assyrian writing. The Jews had a good 
(leal of trouble with the Assyrians and quite often appear in their old 
pictures. Not only Jewish kings were taken away by the Assyrians, 
but many hundreds of men and women, and even boys and girls, were 
taken away from Judea and were harshly treated in the strange land 
to which they were brought. In one of the palace wall-pictures we see 
how captive Jews were kept at work, day after day, carrying heavy 
baskets of earth upon their backs up to the tops of great mounds of 
earth, which they were made to build as foundations for fine buildings. 
Our picture showing the captive Jews building these mounds is drawn 
and colored a good deal like those made by the Assyrians themselves 



lO 




AkAUlAN WUMEN GRINDING CORN AND MAKING BREAD 



on the walls of their great stone houses. The little Jew boys probably 
had a hard time, too, and were much laughed at and abused by the beys 
of the Assyrians. 

But the Jews were not ahvays in slavery or kept as prisoners in 
foreign lands. The father of the Jews was Abram. You remember 
how he left the land where he had been brought up, at God's command. 
" The Lord said unto Abram, ' Get thee out of thy country, and from 
thy. kindred and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will shew 
thee : and I will make of thee a great nation.' " So he went away to a 
new country, and God was with him and blessed him. One time, liowever, 
a famine came upon the land, and he went down, to Egypt and lived there 
until the bad seasons were past and he could go back to Canaan. Canaan 
was the land which God gave to him, and the land where Isaac and Jacob 
and Joseph lived. It was the land to which the Jews returued from Egypt 
after their bondage there. It was there that they built Jerusalem, where 
the Temple was and where the High Priest lived. It was a lovely land 
— a land of mountains, to be sure, where they could raise sheep and 
goats, but wheat and vines and fruits could be raised, too. Olives grew 
there and the vineyards were loaded with grapes. The mountains were 
overgrown with cedars and pines. The Jews themselves always called it 
"a land flowing with milk and honey." There was no great number of 
wild animals there. To be sure, once in a while a bear or a lion would 
come in and capture a sheep or a lamb. David says that he kept his 
father's sheep in the wilderness, and "when there came a lion or a bear 
and took a lamb out of the flock I went out after him and smote him 
and delivered the lamb out of his mouth." So, too, Sampson, as he 

II 




passed near the vine- 
yards of Timnah, seized 
a lion that came out 
roaring against him, and 
tore him. But there 
were few such wild 
beasts. Birds there were 
in plenty, — great eagles 
in the mountain heights, 
and little sparrows every- 
where so plenty that two 
were sold for a farthing 
in the market places. It 
must have been a nice 
country for boys to play in. There were 
brooks to wade, bees' nests to rob, hills 
to clamber over, trees to climb ; and no 
doubt the little Hebrew boys loved to do 
kll these things then just as our boys do 
now. Then they shot with bows and 
arrows, and slung stones Parties of boys 
at a brookside would fill their pouches with 
smooth stones, and then with their stick 
slings — not like the slingshots, or even like the cord slings, that oui boys 
have — they would practice slinging stones at a mark and would gain great 
skill. How lucky it was that David had been on such expeditions with his 
boy friends ! But the boys in Judea were not always at play. No, indeed ; 
they were often set to watch sheep, or sent on long, long errands. They 
had to pull weeds, too, and help in the fields at sowing time, and were 
often among the gleaners at harvest. There were good fields in Canaan 

I 2 



MYRRH PLANT AND TARES. 




LOCUST OF THE BIBLE. 



in the olden time. Wheat was the great crop. Farmers had to look 
out carefully for tares in their fields, the most troublesome and dangerous 
of weeds. At first, when the wheat is just starting, the tares can be 
picked out if there are but few of them in the field, and many a little Jew 
boy in the old time was set to weeding out the tares in the wheat field. 
The wheat and tares looked so much alike that he had to be very 
careful or he would pull up the good wheat. Terrible stuff tares were, 
for their seeds, if mixed with wheat and ground up into flour, caused 
terrible pain and even death to those who ate it. 

There is one plant often mentioned in the Bible which, perhaps, 
grew in Canaan formerly, though it does not now, the myrrh plant. 
Myrrh was very much prized by the Jews, and was obtained from a small, 
thorny tree. The trunk was bruised with stones, and the sap ran out and 
gummed as it dried. This gum smells very sweet and burns with a 
pleasant perfume. It was among the precious things which the wise men 
from the East brought with them as gifts, when they came to see the 
Christ in his manger cradle. 

The men and bnys worked in the fields to get the wheat, but it was 
the women to whom its grinding into fiour was left. Our picture shows 
women of the present day in the East grinding corn, but we may be suVe 
that in the olden time they looked just the same. The grinding was 
done between two heavy, flat, round stones. To the upper one there 
were two handles, or one, — o^enerally two. The women, taking hold of 
these, would turn the upper stone around and around, and the wheat 
which was put between the two stones would be ground to Hour. The 
flour, mixed up into dough, was rolled out into a thin cake on a smooth 
stone, and then baked on a hot, Hat stone. 

But some years there would be no grist to grind. Great swarms of 




EGYPTIAN POTTER. 



locusts would come up like clouds, darkening the sky as they flew, and 
would settle down on the corn (wheat) by millions. They would eat 
every blade, and when they were gone the fields behind them looked as 
if swept by fire. The locusts were a kind of large grasshopper, and 
when they had eaten all there was in one field' they would leap up into 
the air and fly away to new pastures. Moses called up such a flight of 
locusts into Egypt at God's command. " The East wind brought them, 
and they covered the whole face of the Earth, so that the land was 
darkened, and they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of 
the trees, which the hail had left, and there remained not any green 
thing, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt." 
Never quite so bad in Canaan, perhaps, but still terrible sometimes was 
the destruction caused by the locusts. 

While very many of the men of the old Jews were farmers or 
vinedressers, or else raisers of sheep and goats, there were also many who 
lived in the cities and villages and followed various trades and kinds of 
business. There were men who wove cloth, men who made fine gold 
and brass wares, and workers in ]jrecious stones. There were men who 

14 



sold slaves and lent money One very common business was the making 
of pots and jars. The potter, taking a lump of clay, would set it on his 
" wheel," which was just a round table set on an axis so that it could 
turn around fast. Then setting the table to whirling he would mould 
'the clay into all sorts of forms. Our picture is not of an old Jewish 
potter, but the kind of wheel and the way of using are probably the 
same. Think what a delight it must have been to the little Jew boys 
when they had b<-en sent on errands, or when on their way to school, to 
stop and watch the potter at his work, smoothing the rough lump of clay 
to shape and form, and turning out a handsome jar! 

EGYPT. 




THE GODDESS NISHEM. 



One of the lands in which the Jews often lived, sometimes as 
captives of war, sometimes as slaves, and sometimes because they had 
been driven away from their own country by peril or famine, was Egypt. 
To the land of Egypt, Abram, the father of the Jewish people, went 
when there was a famine in Canaan, and there he dwelt for some time. 
To the land of Egypt, many years later, Joseph of Bethlehem and his 
wife Mary, with the mfant Jesus, fled for safety from the cruelty of Herod, 
the Jewish king. Egypt was a most wonderful land. Its people were 
wise and rich, and built beautiful cities before almost any other people in 
the world. The country lay along a 




i/reat river, the Nile, which 



IS- 



the 



VULTURE. 



Strangest river in the world. This river, 
for one thousand miles from its mouth, 
has no streams emptying into it. The 
country along that whole distance has no 
water except what it gets from the Nile, 
as there is no rain there. At one time 

•5 





of the year, the rain of the region where 
the Nile rises, and the snows melting off 
the mountains of that district, cause the 
river to rise. It grows larger and larger, 
swelling until it floods the whole land of 
Kgypt with its water. Only such places 
as are built on mounds above the river's 
reach are left untouched by the water. 
Then the river's water goes down, down, 
down, and no more water comes until the 
next year. There was once a little Jew 
boy who lived in Egypt, and was brought 
up in the king's palace. lie had been 
found by the king's daughter in an ark 
of bulrushes floating among the reeds and rushes at the river's edge. 
You know the story so well that we need not tell it here. He must 
have seen many strange things in that royal home, and on the streets 
of the beautiful city. ' The Egyptians were great builders, and their 
mighty buildings — the pyramids, the sphynx, the temples, obelisks, 
statues, and rock tombs — still remain, some of them thousands of 
years old, and show us what sort of people the Egyptians were. 
In the pictures, cut into rock and painted on the walls of their 
tombs and temples, they show almost everything they did ; so that, 
although they have been so long dead, we know almost as much of how 
the Egyptians dressed and ate, played and worked, as the boy Moses 
himself did. Of course, their clothes were different from ours. They 
were suited to a very warm climate. The poorer people wore very little 
clothinsjf at all. The richer ones dressed with a g-ood deal of care. All 
the men in Egypt had their heads shaved so that there was no hair there 
at all, but all wore wigs. Boys' heads were shaved, too, but a few locks of 
hair were left. Usually there were two of these locks, one on each side 
of the head, just in front of the ear, and these were strangely twisted 




i6 





KGYPTIAN KING AND QUEEN. 

and hung down as curls. Pharaoh's daughter probably had Moses' head 
shaved in just that way. Pharaoh hhnself probably usually wore a wig 
of black hair, but sometimes he would wear over it a head-dress of fine 
white linen. Sometimes the Egyptian king would wear his crown. 
This was unlike any crowns they make now. Egypt was divided into 
two parts. Upper and Lower Egypt, and there was a crown for each of 
them. Sometimes the king wore one, sometimes the other, sometimes 
both of these crowns, as they were made so that one could be put on 
over the other. When the king was offering sacrifice to his gods, he 
wore a curious striped head-dress of linen, which came down in two 
points, over his shoulders in front and hung down between his shoulders 
behind. The queen wore a head-dress of fine linen, but her hair hung 
down at both sides of her head in front of it, and was curiously 

done up behind. The dresses of the king 
and queen were a good deal alike. They 
were made of fine linen, with the sleeves short 
and very full. Girdles, often of bright colors 

17 




and strangely adorned, were worn around the waist. Both men and 
women usually wore sandals on their feet. These were made of stalks 
or rushes, woven, or of leather. They were sometimes flat, sometimes 
turned up at the ends. They were fastened on to the foot by thongs 
or narrow straps. Sometimes on the king's sandals were painted pictures 
of prisoners taken in war, to show that he trod upon his enemies. 




HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNT. 



Egyptian gentlemen were very fond of hunting, and used lassos to 
capture gazelles and wild o.xen. Nets and traps were made for catching 
some beasts. There were formerly great herds of antelope, and oxen, 
and wild goats in Egypt. Men of wealth used to have tame lions 
around their houses, and with these to help them would go out to hunt 
such animals. The largest animal that they hunted in Egypt was 
the hippopotamus. It lived in the waters of Southern Egypt, and used 
to come up out of the water into the wheat fields and do great damage 
to the crops. Probably they used to send men out into the field to 
make a great noise on drums and by shouting, and so scare them away, 
just at they do now in Ethiopia. In the olden time it was considered 
great sport to go out to hunt and capture them. There is an old picture 

i8 



that shows us how it was done. The picture is broken some, and it is 
not quite the kind of a picture that we would make now. In it we see a 
gentleman standing in a boat. He has a spear with a large sharp point. 
This point is fastened to the shaft in such a way that it will easily come 
off from it. A stout rope is attached to the point, passes along the 
shaft, and goes over a notch at its upper end, and is fastened to a reel 
held in the man's left hand. When the spear was hurled at the animal, 
the point stuck i,:;to him and the shaft came off. The hippopotamus dove 




GENTLEMAN FISHING. 



into deep water, and as he dove the rope was let out from the reel. The 
animal in the picture has been struck three times, and the man is about to 
throw his fourth spear. His son stands near by with a fifth one ready for 
him. After the poor beast had been struck a number of times he would be 
so weak from the loss of blood that a servant could noose him, and he 
would be dragged out on to the shore. Not only were four-footed animals 
hunted and trapped in Egypt, but also many kinds of birds. Large nets 
that opened and shut were used in catching flying birds. Throwing- 
sticks of very heavy wood were used to kill birds on the wino^. Although 
the Egyptians killed so many animals they were quite fonclGf pets, and 
kept a great many different kinds. They v»ere especially fond of dogs 
and cats, and if a pet dog or cat were sick they nursed it most carefully. 

19 




EGYPTIANS PLOWING AND SOWING SEED. 



If it died, all the people in the house would mourn, and would have their 
eyebrows shaved off as a sign of grief. The men were quite as fond of 
fishing as our boys are nowadays. Only very poor men were fishermen 
by trade, but gentlemen of wealth used to go fishing for fun a great deal. 
When the Nile rose and overflowed its banks, much of the water was 
caught in tanks, and dammed up in pools, and would remain there when 
the river had gone down. This water often contained a great many fish. 

A strange old picture shows us a gentleman, dressed 
in his fine clothes, sitting in his easy chair, fi.shing in 
such a pool. He has a very short pole and two lines 
and hooks. He seems to enjoy himself, and is certainly 
having a very easy time. I^oor men unless fishermen 
by business, had no time for such amusements, but 
hired themselves out to work in the field. The soil 
in Egypt is as fertile as any in the world. When the 
River Nile overflows it is full of very fine ijiud, and 
this is left over the fields when the water goes down, 
and is a wonderfully rich soil. Scarcely had the 
water gone before the laborers began to plow and 
break the ground and sow the seed. The plows 




WATF.R-CARRIER. 



were very poor wooden affairs but they were good enough, as 
the ground was soft and fine. A very small kind of oxen were 
used to draw the plow. In the picture we see the wooden plow 
and small cattle, also, how little clothing poor men wore, and the 
wigs on their heads. Other men often followed after the plowman, 
and broke up the lumps of dirt with queer wooden hoes. In such 
work in old Egypt there were always " overseers " to direct the work- 




men, and to see that they kept at work. In our picture there is such 
an overseer, and also a man sowing seed. After the seed was sown they 
did a strange thing. Instead of harrowing the ground, as we do, to cover 
up the seed, they turned a flock of goats into the field, and drove them 
around and around until they had trodden in the seed. As there is no 
rain in Egypt, the fields and orchards had to be very carefully watered. 
The water was taken from the river or from the tanks which had been 
filled when the river was high. It was carried by men in buckets hung 
to the end of a pole that they carried across their shoulders, and was 
emptied into little channels or tubes running through the fields. J n 
Egypt, wheat and barley grew rapidly, and before long the grain was 
ready for the harvest. The wheat was cut just below the ear, and was 
carried to some part of the field where a smooth, round place had been 
cleaned and swept for a threshing floor. The wheat was brought from 
the fields in wicker baskets on the backs of asses. Some of it was 
placed OP the threshing floor, and oxen were driven around over it and 



21 




WINE-PRESS. 



trod out the grain from the husks. The men who drove the oxen around 
and around upon the threshing floor used to sing threshing songs to the 
oxen. Now and then they would put in some new grain to be trodden. 
Men then separated the chaff from the grain with wooden shovels and 
put the grain up into sacks which were carried on n.en's backs to the 
granary to be stowed away. These granaries were somewhat bee-hive 
shaped buildings, and had a little door above and one below. The men 
coming in with the grain climbed on ladders to the upper hole and 
emptied the sacks of grain into it. When wheat was wanted, the lower 
door could be opened and out it would pour. It was probably in such 
granaries as these that Joseph had the corn of the seven years of plenty 
stowed away, for use during the seven years of famine. In Egypt, nowa- 
days they have a different way of threshing, and use a norej. This is a 
threshing machine drawn by oxen. It consists of a wooden frame- 
work with round iron plates set in it. A driver sits upon a seat on 

the machine, which is drag^cred around 
over the grain. The grain is cut with a 
long stalk, as we cut it. The weight of 
the instrument and the iron plates not 
only shake out the grain but cut the straw 
at the same time. While they did not use 
this norej in old Egypt, it is likely that it 
was in use among the Jews. But wheat 
("corn") and barley were not the only 
crops of the old Egyptians. They had, 
also, orchards and vineyards, very pro- 
ductive and very well kept. The grape- 
vines were carefully trained over trellises, 




^;RANARIES. 



22 



./ 



/ 



smzji 



^■:\ 9 









RRICK-MAKING IN EGYPT. 



which were often beautifully painted and ornamented. The Doys 
of Egypt were often hired to spend much time in the orchards 
and vineyards to shout at the birds and to stone them with slings, to 
keep them from destroying the fruit. When fruit-picking time came, 
monkeys were sent up into the trees and vines to gather the grapes 
and tigs. Great quantities of wine was made from these grapes 
and it was pressed out in a bag twisted by sticks at the end, 
turned by men. The juice as it was squeezed out ran into a tub or vat 
below. In our picture of this wine-pressing, as also in the pictures of 
water-carriers an"d brick-makintr, we have shown you something in coloringf 
much like the old Egyptian pictures themselves We would not, perhaps, 
think that the colors were natural, but the paints themselves are certainly 
very good, for they have remained bright these many hundreds of 
years. Perhaps the hardest labor among the Egyptians was the 
making of brick out of clay. Only the very poorest were made to work 
at this, and usually it was left to captives taken in war or to slaves. The 
lews of Moses' time were made to make bricks under the direction of 



23 




cruel taskmasters. The clay was 
dug with rude wooden hoes, 
loaded into vessels or baskets 
and taken to the moulder. He 
had a wooden box into which he 
packed clay until the mould was 
full. He then smoothed the clay 
on the top, shook out the brick, 
and left it to dry. Other men 
came, loaded the dried brick 
into loops at the ends of carry- 
ing poles, and carried them 
where they were needed. 
Everywhere one might see 
the taskmasters, who allowed 
no rest to the toilers. You 
remember how angry Moses 
was at seeing their cruelty ? 
The Jews in that time had a 
hard lot. 

The Egyptians were ter- 
rible heathen. Unlike the' 
Jews, who believed in one true 
God, the Egyptians had many objects to which they prayed and made 
sacrifices, — a great many gods and goddesses. They worshiped the Sun 
and the River Nile. They worshiped their kings. They worshiped 
hundreds of strange idols of beings like men and women, but with 
all sorts of peculiarities. Some of their gods they worshiped, because 
they were good and could help them ; and others because they 
thought they were bad and could hurt them. Everywhere in Egypt 
they worshiped cats, and dogs, and cows ; and in some parts they 
thought that frogs, and goats, and hippopotamuses, were gods. One of 
their gods, named Nubte, was generally represented in the pictures and 
carvings as a being with a man's body and a beast's head — sometimes 
with a hawk's head besides. He was usually considered rather bad, but 
still might sometimes be useful, and was supposed to teach the king how 
to shoot with a bow and arrow. Rameses III., one of the kings, is thus 
represented as being taught how to shoot by this god Nubte. One 
goddess in whom they believed had a great many forms. She was 
supposed to have for her especial charge and duty the guardianship of 



THE GOD NUBTE AND THE KING. 



24 



the kine. One of her names was Nishem. 

o ^ 

woman with a cap and iwo ostrich feathers. 



She is usually pictured as a 
Often, however, she is in the 
form of a vulture with outspread wings, hovering over a king as if to 
protect him. (See headpiece to this chapter.) One of the most horrid 
looking of the gods of Egypt is the one called Bes. In the paintings 
he is made as a short, deformed man, with a curly beard and a head-dress 
of feathers. He was probably the god of death, of destruction, and of 
war. 

The Egyptians were for a long time quite a peaceful people, but as 
they gained wealth and 
power they were forced to 
learn war to protect them- 
selves, and they became 
great warriors at one time. 
When they went to battle 
there were among them 
bowmen, who drew the 
arrow to the head and sent 
it with great force against 
the foe, slingers of stones, 
throwers of darts or jave- 
lins, and brandishers of 
swords. But the most 
interesting part of their 
army was the war chariot. 
This consisted of a wooden 
framework covered with 
leather. There were two 
wheels. The chariots 
were drawn by two horses 
and usually two men rode 
in them ; one as driver, 




BES. 

warrior. Both 



the other as warrior. Both of them wore 
helmets made of cloth and wadded thick, so that a heavy blow upon 
the head would not be felt. The warrior was clad in an armor of metal. 
The whole upper part of his body was encased in a close-fitting coat 
or jacket of overlapping metal plates. In his hand he held his bow and arrow 
ready for use. The driver was not always clad in metal, but might wear 
a thick wadded coat of cloth. At the side of the chariot hung the quiver 
and bow-case In the quiver there were two spears and many arrows. 
The bow-case was of leather, and intended to keep the bow out of the 



25 




WAR CHARIOT. 



sun when it was not in use. The horses were harnessed queerly. The 
pole from the cart had a yoke near the end On this yoke hung two 
small saddles, one of which fitted upon the back of each horse. They 
were then held in place by girth straps. A breastband passed in front 
of each horse. There was but one trace for each, both on the inside. 
Such chariots were much used in the Egyptian army. When Moses led 
the Jewish people out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, away 
from the hard brick-making, up. toward their own dear land, there were 
many of these chariots in uhe host that pursued after them. The 
Lord opened a way for the Jews through the Red Sea, and they passed 
over in safety. But "the waters returned and covered the chariots and 
the horsemen, even all the host of Pharaoh that went in after them into 
the sea ; there remained not so much as one of them." 



26 




A PIECE OF DECORATIUN ON THE WALL OF AN ASSYRIAN PALACE 

NIESOPOTAMIA. 



In Soutliern Asia, near the head of the Persian Gulf, and around 
it between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, there lies a district of 
country called Mesopotamia. To-day it is a desolate and dreary land, 
mainly low and flat, with little or no wealth or life about it. It was, 
however, at one time of great importance, and several mighty nations have 
grown up there. Thousands of years ago it was irrigated or watered 
by artificial streams led from the rivers, and was one of the richest 
farming regions of the world. Hundreds of beautiful cities dotted its 
surface, and life and bustle were everywhere where now is only to be 
found a scene of desolation, with here and there heaps of sand and rubbish. 
These heaps of rubbish have been opened, and have been found to 
contain ruins of grand old cities which fell to decay two thousand years 
ago. Royal palaces have been found built on great artificial mounds of 
earth. The halls of these palaces are often lined with slabs of stone 
covered with elegantly carved pictures of kings and warriors, of 
tortured prisoners, of gods and goddesses. Long inscriptions in 
strange letters are carved upon these walls, also, and they tell us what the 
pictures are about. At the doorways to these halls stand gigantic 
beasts carved in stone, with heads of men, with wings of birds, with five 
legs and feet. In some of these palaces they have found many old 
books — perhaps the oldest in the world. They are very different from 
any books that you have ever seen, and you would not at first think of 
their being books at all. They are only little flat sheets of clay upon 
which words were written with a sharp point. The clay was then baked 
into a little brick and the "book" was done. More than ten thousand 
of these little brick books have been found, and from them and the 
pictured walls men have learned much about Mesopotamia. The first 
great nation that arose in this region was Chaldea, in the Southern part. 



It came to be very powerful, and its last great capital city was Babylon. 
Later on, a great power named Assyria rose in the North. In it was the 
famous city Nineveh. Still later, Assyria lost its power, and where old- 
Chaidea had been there was again a mighty empire with its capital at 
Dabylon, and this new empire was called Babylonia. Now the people 
of Chaidea, ^Assyria, and Babylonia were so much alike that we shall 
speak of all of them together. They all had a great deal to do with 
the Jews. In fact, Abram, from whom all the Jews descended, lived at 
one time in the old Chaldean city Ur, and was himself a Chaldee, 
I suppose He left Ur, and went to Canaan to establish a new 
nation, — that of the Jews. Later on, when Assyria had grown to 
be a great power, and the Jews had become a numerous people, 
there was much trouble between them. 

The Assyrian kings were many of them fond of hunting. In the 
wall pictures of a palace at Nineveh we have a king in his chariot 
out lion-hunting. He uses a bow and arrow, and we see that .several 
shots were necessary to kill the animal. One of the greatest kings for 
lion-hunting — and he was a great king in other ways, too — was Tiglath- 
Pileser I., who says on his walls that he " killed one hundred and twenty 
lions on foot and eight hundred" from his chariot. He was also a 
hunter of elephants and wild bulls, and he had quite a menagerie of 
wild animals, and tried to get new and curious kinds from all parts of the 
world. The king of Egypt sent him a crocodile and some other 
animals for his collection. 




ASSYRIAN KING LION-HUNTINI 



28 




ASSYRIAN KING OFKERING A LIBATION. 



Like so many others of the old-time people whom the Jews knew, 
the Assyrians and Babylonians had a great many different gods whom 
they worshiped and to whom they made sacrifice. Such beings were 
usually made in the pictures with wings, and carried sacred objects of 
some kind. Thus in a picture of a king on his throne, probably offering 
wine to a god, we see that the object of worship is represented as a man 
with wings, carrj'ing a cane in one hand and a basket in tne other. Both 
the cane and basket were sacred objects. The king is attended by two 
servants, one of whom is his cup bearer, and the other some sort of guard 
or attendant. Perhaps one of the favorite gods of the Babylonians was 
Bel. Bel was one of the three great gods. There were many stories 
told about him* but perhaps the one that Babylonian boys most liked to 
hear was that about his fight with the dragon The dragon's name was 
Tiamat, and she was a very dreadful creature indeed, and did a vast deal 
of mischief. So the three chief gods, Anu, Ea, and Bel, concluded that 
she must be destroyed. So Anu made a sword and a bow, and a 
set of armor which Bel put on and went out to fight the dragon. She 
expected to have a very easy victory, and so she came out of the sea with 
a great many of her horrid companions. In the battle that followed, Bel 
wounded her with his .sword. She was enraged, and rushed toward him 




BEI, ANU THE DRAGON. 



with wide opened mouth. At Bel's command a heavy wind rushed in to 
her, choking and tearing her within so that she fell down helpless, and 
Bel bound her and the victory was his. Another great god among the 
Mesopotamian peoples was the " Fish-God," who was half a man and 
half a fish. In the pictures he is shown as having a fish head over his 
own. The fish covered his back and reached half way down his body, or 
in some cases to his feet. Like so many of their gods, he carries the 
basket and the cane. The old Babylonians called the fish-man Oannes, 
and told this story about him. The fish-man came up out of the sea and 
lived among the men of Chaldea, to whom he gave much knowledge. 
He taught them to build temples, to found cities, to make laws, to care 
for land. While he spent his days among men, he went back at night 
into the sea. Among the Assyrians he was called Dagon. This same 
god, half-man, half-fish, was found among a great many other people in 
Asia, particularly among those old enemies of the Jews — the Philistines, 
who had five temples in his honor. One time the Philistines beat the 
Jews in battle and carried away the holy " Ark of the Lord." They set 
it in the great temple of Dagon, at Ashdod. It was left there over 
night. In the morning the image of Dagon was found thrown down 

30 



upon the ground. It was set up 
again, but the next morning it 
was found not only thrown down 
but broken. It was a temple of 
Dagon, where Sampson, after he 
was bHnded, was made to dance 
for the amusement of the Phihs- 
tines, and where by dragging 
down the pillars of the roof he 
killed himself and avenged the 
Jews. 

There are very few parts of 
the world where men did more 
beautiful chiseling in stone than 
in Assyria. All sorts of animals, 
both wild and tame, were cut in 
the most lifelike manner. Camels, 
lions, hounds and horses occur in 
the wall pictures. We have here 
one picture that shows how well 
animal pictures were cut. Two 
Assyrian horsemen are pursuing 
an Arabian on camel-back, 
Though they were so fine cutters 
of stone, and though they could 
build such beautiful palaces, there 
was perhaps never a more cruel 
people than the Assyrians. In 
war they were most brutal. In 
attacking a city they beat in the 
walls with battering rams, which 
were long beams of wood, hung 
by ropes so as to swing back and 
forth, and tipped with heavy metal 
heads. The whole thing was put 
onto wheels, so that it could 
be moved up ne.xt to the wall. 
Sometimes they had towers mounted on wheels, and in these towers were 
soldiers, who could stand on a level with the city walls and fight against 
the people of the town, when the tower was wheeled up near the walls. 




THE FISH-GOD OR DAGON. 



31 



More common yet was it in attacking a city to put up ladders against the 
walls. In the last of our Assyrian pictures — made as all our Assyrian pic- 
tures are, very nearly like the old carvings themselves — we have an attack 
upon a walled city. The men of the town are on the walls, defending 
their city against the assault. The Assyrians are mounting ladders, 
protecting themselves by round shields and using spears as weapons. 
Below we see prisoners just taken in battle being led away. Such war 
prisoners were treated most cruelly by the Assyrians. One king, named 
Asshur-banipal, built a great heap of the heads of slain enemies. He 
had the skin of the prince of his enemies torn from his body while he 
yet lived. .Some of the prisoners he had walled up alive inside of pillars, 
and others he had thrown upon sharp pointed stakes. It was no 
uncommon thing for these cruel kings to cut off the hands, feet, ears and 
noses of prisoners ; to put out their eyes ; to tear out their tongues. 
They did not always do such things to prisoners, but very often would 
take them away from their native land and settle them in Assyrian cities, 
where the)- were allowed to live very much as they did when at home. 
About twenty-five hundred years ago the king of Babylon had some 
trouble with the Jews, and going up to Jerusalem he captured it and 
plundered the Temple. He took some of the Jews back with him to 
Babylon. The trouble continued, and so in a few years more he had 
the city spoiled, the Temple completely destroyed, and the people all 
taken into captivity. For more than fifty years the people lived in 




ASSYRIANS CHASING AN ARABIAN. 
32 



Babylon. They were 
not treated very 
badly, but many of 
them longed for their 
native land, their 
loved city, and 
mourned the destruc- 
tion of the Temple. 
The name of the 
Babylonian king was 
Nebuchadnezzar, 
and it was during 
this time of captivity, 
when the Jews were 
all at Babylon, that 
he set up the great 
Golden Image and 
ordered all men to 
bow down and wor- 
ship it. Of course 
the Jews, who did 
not believe in idols 
and idol worship, 
ought not to obey 
him. The three 
young men who did 
not obey him were 
unhurt, even when 
thrown into the fiery 
furnace. At last, 
when Cyrus became 
king he allowed all 
the Jews to go back 
to their homes. Only fifty tnousand went. The captivity had lasted for 
seventy years, and almost all who had been brought away were dead, 
but there may have been old men in that return who remembered 
being brought in as captives, when they were little boys. The old city 
of Jerusalem was rebuilt and a new Teijiple was erected. 




ASSYRIANS CAPTURING A FORTRESS. 



33 




O R E B C E 



The next really great race with whom the Jews met after the Egyp- 
tians, Mesopotamians and Persians, were the Greeks. Josephus, a Jewish 
writer, tells of a most interesting meeting between them. Alexander, 
king of Macedon, one of the greatest generals that ever lived, with a 
large army of Macedonians and Greeks, besides hired soldiers that he 
had joined to himself from the different cities that he had conquered, was 
on his way to Persia. The High Priest at that time in Jerusalem was 
named Jaddua. Alexander sent messengers to him asking that he should 
at once send him soldiers to help him against Darius, the king of Persia, 
and provisions for his army. He said that if Jaddua would do so he 
would be his friend. The High Priest replied to the messengers that he 
could not do so ; that he had promised Darius not to bear arms against 
him and that he would keep his word. This made Alexander very angry, 
and he said as soon as he should capture Tyre, "the city he was then 
attacking, he would go up against Jerusalem and punish the city 
and the High Priest. In seven months he captured Tyre and then, 
in two more, Gaza, and at last left for Jerusalem. Jaddua, the High 
Priest, was in great terror, and he ordered all the people to make prayer 
and sacrifice unto God to save them. He then said that God had told 
him in a dream what they should do. He gave orders to the people 
that they adorn the city as if for a holiday, throw open the city gates 
and all dress in pure white. He and the other priests dressed in their 
saci-ed robes, — they in their fine linen, and he in his scarlet and purple 
and gold. Then as the army of Alexander marched toward the city, a 
great procession of the Jewish people, all in white, with the High Priest 
and the other priests at their head, marched slowly down from the city 
to meet him. When they met, a strange thing happened. Alexander 
approached the High Priest with respect, saluted him, and then adored 
the name of God on the golden band of the Priest's head-dress. All 

34 




SCENE IN THE WOMEN'S ROOM OF A GREEK HOME. 



the Macedonian army wondered at this, for they had expected to capture 
the city, kill the people and take much gold from the houses and the 
Temple. But Alexander told them that he had seen such a priest in 
a dream, and that he should not harm him. Then he went with the 
Jews into the city, sacrificed to God in the Temple, and then after doing 
them much kindness went on his way to Persia. There were many Greek 
rulers afterward who were not so good to the Jews as Alexander. The 
whole of that part of the world came so completely under Greek power 
that the Greek language was spoken by everyone, and every little 
schoolboy Jew learned to speak and read Greek as if it were his native 
tongue. 

I do not suppose that very many Jewish boys ever went to Greece. 
If they did go there they found much to interest them, although the 
Greek customs would not seem so strange to them as to us. The Greek 
houses were queerly arranged. The men and women lived quite apart 

35 




GREEK WOMEN SWINGING. 



from each other. As you entered the front door you would come to a 
large room where the men lived almost all the time — where they read 
and talked, played and worked, and received callers. Back of this were 
the rooms for women, j^oung girls and little children. Women and girls 
seldom went onto the streets or made calls. When her husband had no 
callers, the wife might go into the front rooms to visit with her husband, 
but would at once retire if anyone came. Yet the women were not so 
lonely and unhappy as we might think. There were always female 
slaves around, and the daughters were good company for their mother. 
There was embroidery and other fancy work to be done Then they, 
had various amusements and games. There was an open yard for 
outdoor play in their part of the house, and here they would swing one 
another or play at see-saw very much as children do nowadays with us. 
We would think it quite funny to see ladies" playing at such games. 
Women might go out occasionally to the theatre, or, at certain times of 
the day, for walks or for shopping. Still they were kept very much at 
home and by themselves. Women slaves did the hard household work 
and were sometimes badly treated. These slaves were usually prisoners 
taken in war by the Greek soldiers and brought home to Greece. They 
were sold in markets, and whoever bought them owned them just as 
much as he did a chair or table for which he had paid. Perhaps the 
happiest time of day to these poor slave girls was the early morning, 

36 



when, with jug in hand, they went to the public fountain to get water for 
the household. They were kept busy all day, and when there was 
nothing else for them to do they were put to weaving and spinning, and 
the result of their labor was sold by the master, who thus made much 
money. 




SLAVE GIRLS AT THE FOUNTAIN. 



It was as warriors that we first spoke of the Greeks. They were 
brave soldiers. The army of Greece was never such an one as that of 
Rome, but the Greek soldier was brave, impetuous and fiery. He was 
lightly clad and carried a spear and a round shield. He wore a helmet 
with a crest. From boyhood he had been trained in the gymnasium, 
and his body was well-knit and his movements graceful The Greek 
soldiers were particularly fond of close hand-to-hand fighting. One of 
the greatest battles of the world was fought by three hundred Greeks 
against a million men from Persia. Xerxes, the Persian king, was their 
leader. It took that vast host seven days to make their landing in 
Greece. What could a little land like Greece do against such numbers ? 
But a handful of Spartans, under the lead of Leonidas, took possession 

2,7 



of a narrow road passing through the mountains over which the Persian 
army must march. Here they fought for two days, and so many Persians 
were killed that the army was frightened and the soldiers would gladly 
have fled. But on the third day of the fight a traitor showed the 
Persians a path around which they marched a party of soldiers, surprised 
the poor Spartans from behind and killed them every one — fighting 
bravely to the very end. Though the Persians gained the battle they lost 
many, many men, and finally left Greece unconquered. No wonder that 
Alexander the Great conquered the world, with such men for soldiers. 

Sparta perhaps produced the bravest soldiers of Greece, but the 
Greek city of the greatest beauty and wealth was Athens. At Athens, 
in the springtime each year, for eight days there was a gay festival. 
Men and boys upon the street were in their best attire. The dress of 
the Greeks was very simple and neat. Men wore a long linen (or short 
woolen ) jacket, falling in folds almost to the feet. This was called the 
chiton, and was apt to be tied at the waist by a girdle. Over the shoul- 
ders was a large square cloth carefully folded and arranged. This was 
the himation. Often instead of this himation, which required a good 
deal of care in its arrangement, a loose cloak called a chlamys was worn. 
This buttoned over the right shoulder. The young man in the last of 
our Greek pictures wears a chlamys, while the actors in the comedy 
picture have on himations. The young man also wears a chiton and has 




GREEK GIRLS ON A SEE-SAW. 
38 



sandals upon his feet and a hat on his head. As we have already said men 
and boys in the springtime were out in their best clothing for the Festival 
of the Dionysia. This festival was given in honor of the god Dionysos, 
the Greek god of wine. The whole eight days were given up to all 
kinds of sport. Countrymen and boys flocked into Athens by thousands, 
and the streets were thronged with people. On the street corners were 
every sort of catch-penny shows. Here there would be a puppet show 
very much like our Punch and Judy. There would be tumblers showing 
off their jumps and twistings, or dancers, or men swallowing swords, or 
trained monkeys performing many funny tricks. We should find the 
greatest crowds at the theatres. 




ROMAN STAGE SCENE. 



Theatres were built in Greece on a hill side which would be cut 
away so that seats might be arranged in curved rows rising one behind 
another. The stage for the actors was in front, so that all the visitors 
could see the performance. Two different kinds of plays were given at 
these theatres — tragedies, where great deeds and terrible things were 
done as if in earnest, and comedies, where everything was in fun and 
meant to make people laugh. Women might go to tragedies but were 
not allowed at comedies. Boys could go to both. The men who acted 

39 




GREEK STAGE SCENE. 



always wore masks, and in the comedies these were made to be as hideous 
and comical as they could be. In a comedy, as it was intended that 
there shoidd be fun and noise and laughter, these strange actors would 
every now and then throw handfuls of nuts or figs out among the 
audience, where there would be great scampering and scrambling to get 
them. Another strange thing about a Greek theatre was, that people 
might go there early in the morning and stay as long as they chose, 
eatirtg their meals there if they pleased. At this great festival, during 
the eight days while the Greeks gave up their time to sport and amuse- 
ment, I am sorry to say that a great deal of wine was used and very 
many men got drunk. With all their learning and bravery, their taste 
for art and beauty, the Greeks were hard drinkers. At the head of this 

40 



chapter you will see some of the beautiful vases and urns and wine cups 
that they used. The little wine cups were usually emptied at one gulp. 
Those that were in the form of beast heads are made so on purpose, as 
they can only be set down steadily bottom side up,, and the wine had to 
be all drunk before the cup could be laid by. 

We have one ancient picture here that is not truly a Greek picture, 
but a Roman one. We have seen what the actors in a Greek comedy 
are like. Here we see how they appear in a Roman theatre. Here, 
too, the idea is to make people laugh by the queer actions and strange 
appearance of the actors. Queer music they have in this one ! See the 
player blowing upon two pipes at once ? We shall see how this was 
dohe later on. 





GREEK WARRIORS. 



The Greeks were very proud of a strong, well-formed body, and 
they tried in every way to develop it. The gymnasiums were among 
their most important buildings, and in them not only young men, but 
men of every age, went daily to practice in running and jumping, in 
wrestling and in throwing weights. Boys were trained in all these 
exercises under regular instructors. Each one tried to do his best and 
30 they made great progress. 



4J 



into 
part 
the 



Once in four years the 
famous " Olympian Games " 
were held at Olympia. As 
the time drew near for this 
great festival messengers 
were sent to eaeh state of 
Greece to announce its 
approach. Almost always 
quarrels were going on 
between different Greek 
cities or states, but when- 
ever these messengers an- 
nounced the approaching 
games, all wars had to 
stop. People came flocking 
Olympia from every 
of Greece. During 
festival all sorts of 
sports and contests took 
place. Matches were held 
in boxing, wrestling and 
leaping, and there were 
running races and chariot 
races. There was the 
greatest excitement over 
these contests, and it was 
held a high honor — the 
highest honor, in fact, 
among the Greeks — to win 
the prize. The prize was 
only a wreath of olive 
boughs, but many a man 
would rather gain that single wreath than a golden crown.- Besides 
these games in the open race track there were other attractions in 
a hall where the great speakers, writers and poets of the Greeks read 
their latest pieces or plays to immense crowds of hearers. So important 
did the Olympian Games become that five whole days were given up 
to them. Similar games were held at other places — the Nemeans, the 
Isthmian and the Pythian Games but nowhere else was there so much 
of an attraction for the Greeks. 




GREEK YOXTTH WITH CHLAMYS, 



42 



ROME. 



We now come to our last set of ancient pictures, and to the last of 
the four great people whom the Jews knew. The Egyptians, the 
Mesopotamians, the Greeks, had gone by,, and now the Jews were to 
suffer at the hands of the Romans. The Egyptians were wise and great 
builders, the Assyrians and Chaldeans were great hunters and cruel 
conquerors, the Greeks were great speakers and fine artists, the Romans 
were great soldiers. Their one thought was war. First they fought 
with their neighbors in Italy. Having conquered them, they invaded 
other lands until all the then known world was in their power. Every- 
where one went he would see Roman soldiers. They conquered Judea 
and put over it a Roman governor. Pontius Pilate, who condemned 
Jesus Christ to die on the cross, was a Roman governor. Roman 
soldiers were so common on the streets of Jerusalem that every little 
Jew boy knew them and hated them. All Roman young men, except 
the poorest and lowest, might have to $erve in the army. The Roman 
soldier's dress consisted of a metal helmet, a breast guard made up of 
metal strips and plates, similar metal strip guards upon his shoulders, and 
metal bound straps hanging from his belt to protect him from blows in 
front. Stout sandals, with thongs covering the larger part of the foot, 
were worn. A heavy spear weighing several pounds was in his right 
hand, and a shield was worn upon the left arm. A short sword hung at 
his right side. (See Frontispiece.) In battle the soldier first hurled his 
heavy spear at the enemy, and then drawing his sword rushed against 
him in a hand-to-hand fight. In attacking towns the Romans had — like 
the Greeks and Assyrians — battering rams and wheeled towers. They 
had also machines for hurling heavy stones, and others for casting darts 
and javelins. 

Josephus, the same Jewish writer who tells of the meeting between 
Alexander and the High Priest, has left us the story of the capture and 
destruction of Jerusalem under the Roman general Titus. It was one 
of the most terrible wars that ever took place. The Jews had become 
tired of their Roman governors, and tried to free themselves from their 
power. Vespasian was sent against them from Rome. He had a hard 

43 




PICTURE FROM THE WALLS OF A HOUSE IN POMPEII. 



time to capture the city of Jotapatra, which was in charge of Josephus, 
at the head of the Jewish forces. Having captured it and some other 
towns Vespasian returned to Rome, where he became emperor and sent 
his son Titus against Jerusalem. The city was surrounded by three 
walls. The Jews resisted the attack of Titus with great bravery. They 
knew there would be no mercy for them, if beaten. Little by little the 
Romans closed in upon the unfortunate city. Terrible battles took 
place. Walls were battered down by the Romans only to find new 
walls built within. War towers were built high enough to overlook the 
city walls, and while they were being built the Jews built the walls yet 
higher. Finally the outer wall was taken and the Jews were crowded 
back. Terrible famine was in the city, and many died of hunger. Some 
Jews threw themselves from the city walls in despair, and so were killed, 
The temple was finally set on fire, and even within its holy walls a 
terrible conflict took place. At last, after seven months of siege, the 
city was taken. All was utterly destroyed, except part of the walls left 
by Titus to show what a great city it had been. Ninety-seven thousand 
Jews were taken away captive, and during the war more than one 
million of them had been killed in Judea. The handsomest young men 
among the captives were taken to Rome to be dragged behind the 
chariot of Titus in his great procession. Of the rest, those who were 
more than seventeen years old were sent to Egypt to work in the mines. 
Those less than that — all the little Jew boys and girls — were carried 
away to be sold as slaves. So the beautiful city and its grand Temple 
were destroyed. Josephus says it had been captured six times before, 
and once totally destroyed. The Jews, without a home, were scattered 
over the whole earth. 

44 




ROMAN WAR-GALLEY. 



One of our pictures shows us a Roman war ship such as were used 
in sea battles and in carrying soldiers to war. These galleys were rowed 
by oars, but had sails also. The rowers were slaves. Each had a single 
oar and sat as he rowed. The oars were in two or three sets one over 
the other, and the rowers' seats were of course arranged in such a way 
that the rowers of the upper oars sat above the others. The 
oars passed out through small holes in the side of the vessel. The 
rowers were protected by the side of the vessel, so that they were in 
no great danger from arrows or spears in a battle. The upper set of 
oars must have been very long and heavy. The front and stern of the 
boat, like our vessels nowadays, were very likely be ornamented by 
some quaint carving— perhaps the head of a bird, a dragon or a human 
form. In war galleys, like the one in our picture, the front of the ship 
was usually made with a sharp pointed keel, and was armed with spears, 
blades, and other weapons which were intended to do great damage to 
other ships in battle. Notice the man under the shelter at the stern of 
the boat. He has two very broad paddles for steering the boat. The 
sails were quite unlike our sails, and the rigging was quite different. 

45 




ROMAN GLADIATORS. 



At home, in the city of Rome, the people were very fond of public 
games and performances at the theatres and in the Coliseum. These were 
sometimes no more harmful than the games and plays of the old Greeks, 
but sometimes were most cruel and dreadful. The Coliseum was one of 
the grandest of the old Roman buildings. It was an oval stone building. 
In the centre was a great race course or arena. Around this were the 
seats for the spectators, one row of seats rising behind another. Eighty 
thousand persons could sit there at one time and watch the sports going 
on in the arena below. There were special seats of honor for the 
emperor, and rich men and women. Terrible things were done in that 
arena. Sometimes there were only chariot races, but at other times 
captives taken in war would be put in there with a short sword as their 
only weapon, and made to fight with wild beasts. The men were, of 
course, often torn to pieces. At other times women and children and 
old men, whose only crime was that they were Christians and loved and 
served the true God, would be left to be killed and torn by lions. But 
the sports in which the cruel Romans most delighted were the gladiator 
fights. Gladiators were captives of war or slaves, who, to supply 
amusement for their masters and the Roman people, were made to fight 
with one another. In our picture we see two gladiators. One of them 
is playing on a horn, probably giving the signal that the fight is about to 
begin, or blowing a challenge. Behind him are two men, one holding 
his shield, the other one his helmet. On the other side we see the 
second fighter and his two assistants, one holding a helmet, the other a 
sword. The man between them is probably to give the rules of the fight, 

46 



The Romans, like the Greeks, were fond of feasts and music and 
wine. At their meals they lay down on couches, and usually, after 
eating, had music and wine. They had no pianos, those are a new thing. 
But they did have a great many kinds of horns, and flutes and harps. 
In the picture of a Roman theatre, which we saw before, there was a 
picture of a player who was blowing upon two pipes at once. Here 
we have another picture showing how it was done. One pipe is held in 
each hand and passes through a band over the mouth, which keeps the 
air from being wasted. 

Our "ancient pictures" 
from Rome come to us, not 
from walls of graves and 
temples, like those of Egypt ; 
not from royal palaces, like 
those of Assyria ; not from 
vases, like those of Greece 
— but from the walls of 
houses at Pompeii. In the 
year 79 — more than eighteen 
hundred years ago, when 
Rome was at its greatest 
power, only nine years after 
Jerusalem was captured by 
Titus — a strange thing 
occurred. The mountain 
Vesuvius, which no one sup- 
posed to be a volcano, 
began to throw out melted 
rock or lava and a great 
cloud of fine dust that filled 
the air like smoke. Many 
people were killed, and much 

\m//^^"" ':^':^;^' I property was destroyed. At 

A PLAYER ON TWO PIPES. Pompeil SO much of the fine 

dust fell that it completely buried the city. Many people living there 
were killed by this dust and buried in it. For hundreds of years no 
one knew but what the city had been destroyed. Finally, however, parts 
of old buildings were found by digging, and now a large portion of 
the old city has been brought to sight. Things were most wonderfully 
preserved. Not only w^re such objects as ornaments of gold and silver 




47 



M 







ROMAN WINE- WAGON 



found, but also tools of bronze, furniture of various kinds, and even 
loaves of bread and the dried fruits and candies that the boys and girls 
of Pompeii used to spend their coppers for. The houses were many 
of them quite entire except the wooden parts. On the walls of the 
different rooms the paintings were wonderfully bright and clear. In these 
house-wall paintings we see many interesting scenes, and one of these 
shall be our last " ancient picture." It is a wine merchant's wagon. It 
consists of a light wooden framework upon which is a great skin bag. 
This has a large opening in front through which the wine is poured 
into the bag. At the other end is a smaller op*" ling through which the 
wine is let out into vessels, and which can be tied up with a cord. A 
slave is bringing some wine jars or amphorae to be filled. These jars 
were pointed below, so that they could be stuck into the soft earth of the 
cellar floor. 

Our "ancient pictures" have been chosen only among people with 
whom the Jews met and by whom they have been oppressed. Jakie and 
Frank have had to leave their home and come to a strange land ; just so 
have little Jew boys had to do through all the past. How many strange 
things little Jews have seen ; how many they do see to-day ; how many 
they may have to see in vears to come ! 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





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